Page 13 of Three Days of Holiday

I ripped the badge from my pocket, looped it around my neck, and flipped it over to hide my name while glaring at the woman.

She raised an eyebrow at my overreaction but said nothing.

“I highly doubt he needs a name badge. Everyone knows who he is,” Diane said, looping her arm in mine.

It too closely resembled what I’d done with Holly the night before, and I turned away from her, unhooking our arms. She followed me all the way to the corner of a room where I took up a spot to watch as the other competitors entered for the morning. One woman in particular was on my radar.

Did I resemble a cranky asshole? Probably.

“Really, William,” Diane said, using my full name and making me grind my teeth.

“What?” I asked, settling in against the wall and propping my feet out, tucking one over the other.

“You’re staying in Clearwater? That’s unnecessary.” She stood right in front of me, blocking my view of the competition hall and forcing me to lean to the side to look around her and keep an eye out for Holly.

“I want to be close to the event.” The event and a few people.

Diane scoffed and took a step sideways, restoring my view. “You’ve won the event the last five years. They should just name the award after you.”

Her words fell on deaf ears. Because at the exact moment she spoke, Holly entered the hall and headed straight for the registration booth with her shoulders back and a stride to her walk, telling everyone she knew how good she was.

“Listen,” Diane said, stepping back in my view. “I need to warn you about something.”

“What?” I asked, annoyance heavy in my words. I didn’t need to know anything from Diane.

Nothing important that she could give me.

“Shawn is here.”

The cousin in question took that moment to make his presence known by walking into the hall. The one man on the planet I couldn’t stand more than anyone in the Halliday family waved to me from the other side of the room where he chatted with my assistant.

“What is he doing here?”

5

HOLLY

Ihated to admit it, but I spotted Will pretty much as soon as I walked into the exposition hall. It’s not like I did it on purpose. I wasn’t trying to look for him. My eyeballs just found him. It’s like they moved on their own and zeroed right in on him.

Ugh, I sounded like a lovesick puppy.

Another thing that wasn’t my fault. He looked as cute even in the daytime. It was also good to know he survived the walk through my woods on his own the night before. Growing up I was pretty sure either Bigfoot or the Chupacabra lived in the Oceanview Orchards woods.

I’d heard it called a chupafoot.

Even though I wanted to run over and say hello, I also had a persona to keep up at this event— tough, strong, and one-fifth of the Halliday takeover machine. Some people said they had nothing to prove, but I wasn’t one of those people.

I had a lot to prove.

My bad-assery was just one thing on the long list.

Why was Will at the event? He’d been taste testing the day before, but did he have a reason to be here at the finals? Had he come to see me?

I would have walked over to Will and said at least a quick good morning considering we met each other formally at the event the day before, but he was engrossed in a heated conversation with the woman he’d been standing beside yesterday. They both leaned toward each other, and if I didn’t know better, I’d say they looked comfortable enough to be lovers.

Or enemies.

The way Will’s eyebrows dove in together and his nose crinkled when he spoke said maybe enemies. His lips formed a hard line, giving him wrinkles while he listened to the woman speak. They definitely weren’t having a pleasant conversation.

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